Rebel Without a Cause
Composite Score: 86.7
Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper, Dennis Hopper, Edward Platt, and Marietta Canty
Director: Nicholas Ray
Writers: Stewart Stern, Irving Shulman, and Nicholas Ray
Genres: Drama, Thriller, Coming-of-Age
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Box Office: $217,521 worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Rebel Without a Cause is Nicholas Ray’s film about the listless middle-class youth of the 1950s, following a group of high school students from the Los Angeles suburbs as they flirt with disaster at every turn in attempts to buck or impress their parents. The film stars James Dean as newcomer and troublemaker Jim Stark, Natalie Wood as the wistful and flighty Judy, and Sal Mineo as the wealthy loner “Plato” Crawford. The film focuses on Jim, following him from an initial encounter with Plato and Judy at the police precinct where each of them have been brought in late at night for individual crimes. Eventually, Plato latches onto Jim as a potential friend, helping him navigate the social complexities of the new high school where Jim finds himself. Romance blossoms between Jim and Judy even as her boyfriend Buzz (Corey Allen) and his gang seek to put Jim in his place. Tragedy soon begets tragedy as their parents’ lack of involvement and their own increasingly risky behaviors lead to injuries, hurt, and death as the film spirals to its inevitable ending. Both Mineo and Wood were nominated for Oscars for their performances (Dean missed out because he had already received a nomination that same year for his leading role in East of Eden), and Nicholas Ray garnered a nomination for Best Story. The film continues to be heralded for the performances of its trio of leads and for its social commentary on intergenerational relationships between parents and their children.
While it could easily be written off as merely a critique of the social situation of the 1950s, as highlighted by the knife fights, car races, and lack of cell phones, the film’s commentary on the disconnect between parents and their adolescent children seems more universal than that. Every generation of teens experiences some level of disconnect from their parents, often resulting in the unspoken or unfulfilled expectations on the parts of both parties. Teens expect their parents to look and act a certain way, but the parents rarely ever live up to those high expectations. At the same time, parents expect rationality and specific forms of achievement from their teens, and their children rarely excel in even one of those aspects. It’s this inevitable disconnect that’s given a poignant voice in Rebel Without a Cause, which offers a critique of the recklessness and melodrama of youth while also critiquing the obstinacy and complacency of parents. It offers a lesson to both parties in the relationship couched in a truly entertaining and moving film.
The performances from the three leads lend themselves to that poignancy and keep the audience keyed in at all times to what’s going on. Natalie Wood’s Judy is more than just a teen love interest for the male lead; she is also a poster child for daddy issues and the complexity of the emotions and rationale of a teen girl. It’s a solid performance that most other high school films have been chasing with their leading ladies since but have never been able to fully recapture. Sal Mineo gives a haunting performance as the lonely, rich, troubled youth Plato, endearing himself to the audience despite the obvious red flags in his personality, making his tragic arc all the more impactful. Of course, though, it is James Dean that carries the film with his iconic performance – not just the red leather jacket, white t-shirt, and jeans – that’s full of the dramatic outbursts that you might expect from a teen melodrama that somehow never seem out of place or too over-the-top. His deliveries of “You’re tearing me apart!” and “I’ve got the bullets!” might be two of the most iconic in the history of film, and the latter is one of the most chilling line deliveries ever, hammering home the tragedy of the film and the disconnect that it’s trying to communicate. He brings all the anger, sadness, wanderlust, recklessness, and heart of that generation and all generations of teens longing to be heard by the adults in their lives to his performance and to those lines especially, marking it as one of the most memorable performances ever put to screen. Even if the film hadn’t been released a mere month after the actor’s tragic death, this would still be one of the best performances ever, and though I understand the nomination for East of Eden’s more complete performance over this one, this’ll be the one he’s forever remembered for.
James Dean carries a strong trio of leads in this teen drama that transcends generation and genre to cement itself in the annals of cinema history, earning a spot among the Greatest Films of All Time. Some might take issue with the overdramatization of everything in the film, but I’d encourage them to interact with some teens in the near future and recognize how important they view every moment to be before passing too heavy of a judgement on the film. You can currently rent this film on most streaming platforms if you’d like to check it out any time soon.
